Help me find a cheap but decent laser cutting machine please

[Izzy07]

Hi everyone,
I'm new here and could really use your help.

I currently buy wooden shapes that are either plain or engraved eg.. Hearts or cupcakes with detail on them and then I paint them up, and now I'm looking into getting a machine to cut these shapes myself and hopefully start selling the shapes too but I can't and don't want to spend a fortune £2000 is just out of my league.

I saw a co2 USB laser (not sure what it is lol) and it was cheap about £400 but is it useless? And who on earth is a good company to buy from?

Please please help me, I'm in the uk if that helps

[DavenUK]

Hi Izzy07,

If you buy a laser for less than £1500 you could end up buying something that does not work very well or will have no support for!
Have a look at HPCLaser - their forum is here if you want to ask any questions ;-)

Dave

PS Just a happy customer of theirs.

[DavenUK]

This will also help ;-)

Dave

[Izzy07]

Thanks for that, looked at their cheapest laser cutter and it's about £2500 not sure when/if I'd make that back!

[DavenUK]

The HPC 3020 is £1125 (+VAT) - it does depend what size sheets you want to cut (the 3020 does A4) and the thickness of the material up to 4mm Ply or MDF.

I think you should read up on how the cutters work as well - new owners often find out it is not as simple as pluging in a printer and the regret the purchase! ;-) ask/read here or the forums I mentioned above. :-)

Do you plan to create your own designs or create your own vectors to cut out? What CAD software are you using?

Best

Dave

[Exsecratio]

Hiya Izzy,

As my late father used to tell me "Cheap, Fast, Accurate, pick any two"

Sadly a laser machine that costs £400 - £500 isn't going to be much use for practical or industrial work (ie: making stuff to sell), it's likely to be quite old (circa 2 years or more) possibly meaning you will likely be needing to buy some consumables for it shortly after purchase, these items can include Tubes (circa £200) lens (circa £100) Mirrors (circa £150 a set) so that cheap laser may not end up being a cheap option after all (as well as not actually doing what you want it to reliably)

Or put another way "by cheap,buy twice"

If something is a lot cheaper than you would expect there is always a good reason for that, usually this includes, 1:it's knackered...2: it's VERY knackered or 3: It's stolen

None of the above is going to be much use to you if you want to make stuff to sell.

My personal recommendation would be to speak to Chris or Simon at HPC and see what they have to say, on occasion they will have second user machines in stock (although not massively cheaper than new ones) what you would score with is buying a machine from one of the UK's most well known distributors who will be around to help when things go wrong.

I don't work for HPC but having purchased two machines from them and looking to use them again in the near future you can rest assured if their machines were crap I'd be telling people that

Just my two cents worth but I'd advise against buying something that cheap and expecting it to be any actual use.

best wishes

Dave (another one)

[Izzy07]

Advice definitely noted! Am hoping to design my own shapes but I haven't started that yet, I wanted to see if this was a feasible idea price wise before getting into it further.

You'll already think I'm an idiot for not looking at the price properly.....I'm not a total idiot....honest!
£1125 plus vat sounds ok to me, definitely feasible so now I need to look into how to actually use it before I buy one. Do you have any good links on how to basically use one please?

Thanks so much for your help, I have had a quick look at your previous links and am about to sign up to the forum.

Izzy

[Exsecratio]

Ask whatever questions you like Izzy the guys on both forums don't bite (do we Davo?)

best wishes

Dave

[Izzy07]

Another Dave!

Thank you both for all this help, I really appreciate it. I'm liking the look of the HPC 3020 and good customer service is always a big benefit.

Just need to find out if I'll be able to learn how to use one before I go and possibly waste my money.

Izzy

[DavenUK]

Ask whatever questions you like Izzy the guys on both forums don't bite (do we Davo?)

best wishes

Dave

Not with my teeth bud

Don't think you are an idiot Izzy - I nearly made the same mistake myself a couple of years ago! I would hate to think you could spend £400 on something that could be a pile of scrap

You will need plenty of space for the machine, water tank (25ltrs) and air assist. The 3020 runs off Newlydraw so you will need a Windows XP machine (or possibly Windows 7 32bit). It is quite heavy so you will need a sturdy desk to put it on.

Place it near a window so you can extract the smoke - a cold damp garage is not a good idea . Regarding design something like DraftSight is good and free. It is a steep learning curve but I had paid for my machine in the first year - you just need to stick at it.

Hope we havn't burst your bubble but a lot of adverts don't get down to the nitty grity.

Best

Dave

[Izzy07]

Ok well I'll have a look at finding out where to get an air assist from and a water tank, I have windows xp but if I needed windows 7 that's ok too.

We don't really use our conservatory so I was planning on putting it in there on a sturdy desk (am hoping it's sturdy enough)

May be a silly question but do you get good instructions with the machine? On basically how to start? I'll mess with DraftSight but then im guessing it's not a case of opening the box, plonking it on the desk, turning it on and transferring the files (that's after I've worked out what to do with the water tank and air assist!) oh and then there is where to buy the wood, B&Q should do for the start.

Thanks again and I'm glad you don't bite
Izzy

[DavenUK]

The air assist is supplied - I use a storage container for the tank, de-ironised water can be obtained from a car spares shop in 25 ltr containers as well.

Depending how long you will be running the machine and in the summer in a conservatory an added cooler will be required to keep the water temp down.

The Newlydraw instructions are not too good but the forum is

B&Q material is not too good for lasers - the best material is laser quality Ply or MDF which will cut better and produce less staining/smoke. Hobarts, Hindleys or HPC all sell laser ply.

Best

Dave